chrosched wrote:Steve Yzerman is undoubtedly one of the most popular players in the history of the Detroit Red Wings. He's fast becoming their most unpopular rival general managers.After outmaneuvering the Wings for free-agent defenseman Sami Salo earlier in the week, the Tampa Bay Lightning GM signed free-agent Matt Carle of the Philadelphia Flyers to a 6-year, $33-million deal, according to TSN's Darren Dreger and Steve Whyno of the Washington Times. The average cap hit is $5.5 million; Carle previous had a 4-year deal with an average hit of $3,437,500.The Red Wings were expected to be in the hunt for Carle after losing out on Ryan Suter earlier in on July 1. Yzerman was concerned that there might be a bidding war for Carle, as teams that missed out on Ryan Suter (who signed with Minnesota) turned their attention to the 27-year puck-moving D-man.Instead, it was the Lightning that won he services for a cap hit slightly higher than that of Dennis Wideman, for a player that isn't nearly the defensive concern. (Carle, by the way, should send Wideman a Christmas card. Or maybe $20.)

Detroit could be in a bit of a pickle come October. Their forward corps hasn't changed overly much, but their blueline will be a gigantic question mark without a stand-in for Lidstrom, and their PP will be drastically changed.

the Dogsalmon wrote:i remember the Red Wings pre Stevie Yzerman...every team would pound the shit outta them...it was a guaranteed 2 points when you played the Red Wings...i look forward to seeing that again...

Only if they don't uncover another couple of late-round gems in Europe to propel them into the post-Zetterberg/Datsyuk era. You can never count that organization out, but they are definitely looking more and more like an old, wounded beast out there.

Fred wrote:Late round picks are by there very name .....lucky picks ie the the team that picked them actually passed over them as well. Luck is not a good way to go into the season

Those late round picks are pure fluke. If the Wings' scouts truly believed Zetterberg and Datsyuk were great players, they would have been picked in the early round. Why would the Wings take the chance and let other teams draft these two star players?

Looking at that two drafts, the Wings only have three NHL regulars out of the 11 picks. Fischer was just a servicable defenseman but was picked in the first round ahead of the mighty Datsyuk. The Wings were lucky to hit the jackpot in the later rounds. Would they be lucky again? Probably, but highly unlikely.

If I had to guess, Tampa hadn't watched Salo play at all this year. I think it is purely a desperation move by Yzerman. That team needs defencemen badly, and they had to do something I guess.

I like Sami Salo and would have been happy to have him back on a one year deal as a depth player, but that two year $7.5M deal he got from Tampa is ridiculous. That deal would have been fair three years ago, but not now. I hope they are not expecting him to be able to play significant minutes for 82 games.